Movable stationery

STATIONERY

Volume 8

Number 1

February

2 OO O

Catechetical Scenes

Ann Montanaro
East Brunswick, NJ

Between 1955 and 1964, the Salesian Catechetical
Centre in Kowloon, Hong Kong, produced 1 7 pop-up
books designed to be used to teach Roman Catholic
doctrine. The books are a series called "Catechetical
Scenes" and they are interesting both because of their
text and their unusual pop-up and mechanical
illustrations. The books are each SVa x 754 inches with
44 pages and about 20
double-page pop-ups
per volume. Rev. M.
Coerezza, S.D.B. is the
author of series. Each
book was issued with an
identical illustration on
the dust jacket showing
an Asian man and
woman using the pop-
ups to teach five Asian
children. According to
the dust jacket, there
were 18 volumes
published in 6
languages. However,

the 18th title, The Law of Love 4, does not appear to
have been produced. The muted, colorful, internal
illustrations depict didactic Biblical tales, sacraments
of the Catholic church, morality tales, and the
punishments resulting from wrongful acts.

These books were teaching aids and an example
from Confession, part 1 shows how the book was
designed to be used. A pop-up pastoral scene shows
cows grazing on a hillside and a bull charging a man
holding a smoking gun. The lesson is entitled
"Deliberate Consent." The text reads "Some cattle
were one day grazing on pasture land. The day was
fine, and all about was quiet and leisuresome. Two
children were playing together over beyond the herd,
and the herdsmen sat under the shade of a sycamore.

"Suddenly for no apparent reason a bull ran amuck
and bore down at a mad rush upon the children. By
good luck one of the herdsmen was on the alert. Quick

as thought, he whipped out a revolver and fired in
rapid succession at the bull. The beast took the first
bullet and rolled over, leaving a passerby exposed to
the others. The man was hit and fell down dead.

"Did the herdsman commit mortal sin? He certainly
did not. He did indeed kill the man; and he knew that
killing a man is gravely forbidden. Yet he committed
no sin. For he did not mean to kill him. He had no
intention to do so. Therefore, there was no deliberate
consent at all. Without a full or deliberate consent no
mortal sin is committed."

The pop-up consists of three layers of stand-up
illustrations - cows, trees, and the man - each pulled up
by a tab adhered to the adjacent page. (The tabs are
made from scrap paper and some have Chinese
characters printed on the paper.) The bull, which is
printed on a sliding tab, can be pulled from side to side
and when the bull gets close to the man, the wounded
bystander is visible. There are four pages of questions
in the back of the book, and three of the five questions
for this lesson are: "When something is not meant, is
it a mortal sin?" "What kind of consent must there
be?" and "If we are in doubt about a sin, whom should
we ask?"

Several of the early titles. Confession, part 1 and
Confession - part 2 & Extreme Unction, and The
Blessed Eucharist published respectively in 1956 and
1957, have one or two string-pulled movable
illustrations which are not found in later works. In

Confession -
part 2, the
lesson on
"Sacramental
penance"
shows a priest
at an altar
absolving a
man of his
sins. In a
cellophane-
covered, die-
cut window on
the page
behind the priest the text reads "Satisfaction,

The Movable Book Society

ISSN: 1097-1270
Movable Stationery is the quarterly publication of The
Movable Book Society. Letters and articles from
members on relevant subjects are welcome. The annual
membership fee for The Society is $20.00. For more
information contact Ann Montanaro, The Movable
Book Society, P.O. Box 1 1654, New Brunswick, New
Jersey 08906.

Daytime telephone: 732-445-5896

Evening telephone: 732-247-6071

e-mail: montanar@rci.rutgers.edu

Fax: 732-445-5888

The deadline for the next issue is May 15.

indulgences, prayers, works, these cut out Purgatory
and open the gates of Heaven." In a similar, adjacent
window a half dozen people are standing amid flames.
When the string, which is attached to the text, is
pulled, the text is moved across the page to mask the
people and a picture of Jesus and angels is then visible
in the window.

In addition to pop-ups, some of these books include
flaps that open to reveal small pop-ups, lift-the-flaps,
and tab-operated illustrations. The pages are printed
on stiff board but the paper used for the pop-ups is very
lightweight. There is finely cut detail in the
illustrations including individual fingers on the hand,
palm fronds, tools, and weapons.

In 1967, the Salesian Catechetical Centre published
a 3-volume series "The Mysteries of the Rosary." The
titles in this series are part 1 : The Joyful Mysteries;
part 2: The Sorrowful Mysteries; and part 3: The
Glorious Mysteries. Each volume is 13 x I8V2 inches
with 14 pages and 6 pop-ups. Rev. M. Coerezza,
S.D.B. is the author of this series. The illustrations in
the books in this series are not as fine as the earlier
series nor are the pop-ups are intricate. They, too, are
designed as teaching aids and the pop-ups and text are
printed parallel to the spine.

Another book was recently identified that was
published by the Salesian Catechetical Centre and
authored by Fr. M. Coerezza, S.D.B. The title is The
birth of Jesus: The adoration of the Magi. It is the
same size as the "Mysteries of the Rosary" series and
appears to be part of a series entitled "Illustrative
Catechetical Scenes." This particular volume was

published in 1964 and has a large oval printed on the
cover with "c.13" in the center. There are just two
large pop-ups and both the text and illustration are
printed parallel to the spine.

Some of these books are available in English and
other languages from Soldiers Of Christ. A limited
number of full sets are available. A complete set of 17
(15 in English plus two volumes in Italian, with
English translations pamphlets included) is $200 plus
$3 shipping for USPS book rate in the USA.

The condition of available books varies. All have
working pop-ups, but some volumes are slightly
flawed. Most books were stored in cartons, away from
light and heat, allowing the dust jackets to retain their
original color. But there are some that have sun fading
on the spine or dust jacket, or that may have a scuffed,
torn or slightly stained dust jacket, while others have
water stains which occurred from storage in Hong
Kong. A few have some warping. A complete set of 1 7
books, complete with dust jackets but with the
noticeable flaws just described is $75 plus shipping for
USPS book rate in the USA. These sets have up to five
books in a non-English language, with English
translation pamphlets included.

The large, three-volume Mysteries of the Rosary
books are available at $ 1 00 per set plus $3 shipping for
USPS books rate in the USA. (The Illustrative
Catechetical Series is not available from Soldiers Of
Christ.)

Shipping by book rate will take about 10 days. You
may request shipping by Priority Mail which will take
two to three days, but will cost $24 rather than $3.
Write to request cost of foreign shipments. Payment is
by check or money order in US funds; no credit cards.

For more information, write to Soldiers Of Christ,
Box 400, Rib Lake, WI 54470-0400. Please do not
telephone for information about these books. Send your
order by mail and be patient; you will hear from them.
You may also request literature on this series by
mailing your name and address to the above address or
by sending an email to soc@newnorth.net.

Titles in the "Catechetical Scenes" series:

1 . God and Man

2. Christ our Redeemer

3. The Mother of God

4. The Words of Jesus

continued on page 5

Pop-up Design - First in a Series

UlfStahmer

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

bovine.designs@sympatico.ca

This is the first article in what I hope to be a series
of articles which describe the more popular concepts of
pop-up design. Unlike the majority of "how to" books
on pop-ups which describe how to make a specific
pop-up, my intent is to describe the concepts behind
the pop-ups and how they work. Armed with the tools
which you are about to learn, you will be able to rival
the likes of Ron van der Meer, James Roger Diaz and
Robert Sabuda in no time! These articles will also be
posted on my web page

<http://www3.sympatico.ca/bovine.designs> for your
reference. This article will discuss the concepts behind
180° pop-ups.

The Classic 180° Pop-up:

Without a doubt, the classic 1 80° pop-up seen in the
illustration below is the backbone of pop-up design. It
is called a 180° pop-up because it allows the page
spread to be fully opened. Of the 300 plus pop-up
books in my collection very few do not contain at least
one of these. The concept is very straightforward:
opening the page spread pulls an image glued across
the fold line to a standing position and folds back
down into the page as the spread is closed.

Centre- Fold

Vertical Fold
^*-^X — ^_. Pop-up Irroge

Pa^ Spread ^^T^

i _^^^^t^£^^^^ ~^^»

r " * ^ hi ~~^~^

j^^Q^vi Tab folded
^^^ fonvaids

""* folded baclavaids

Classic 180° Pop-up

This concept is used so frequently because of its
inherent simplicity and versatility. Its ease of
manufacture has also made it popular in advertising.
Reynolds Tobacco used this type of pop-up in at least
a half dozen magazine ads in the late 1980s promoting
their "Camel" and "Salem" brands.

Some of my favorite examples of this technique are
illustrated in the final spread of The Story of the Statue

of Liberty' and Richard Scarry 's Biggest Pop-up Book
Ever2. The Statue of Liberty spread depicts Liberty
surrounded by the steam ships and tall ships present at
the official opening in 1886 and is beautiful in its
simplicity because it appears to be more elaborate and
complex than it really is. Richard Scarry's book very
cleverly uses both sides of the pop-ups to tell the story
thereby reducing the number of spreads from 6 to 3
and combining the fairly simple pop-ups and
illustrations very effectively.

To begin an image which you would like to pop-up
is required. This decision is yours. How to make it pop
up will be described in the following sections. Please
do not get lost in the descriptions. These concepts may
appear more complex than they really are. This is due
to the incredible versatility of this style of pop-up. I
highly recommend choosing several of your own
favorites and study how they work. If a picture is worth
a thousand words, a working model is worth a
thousand pictures.

Basic Rules of Motion:

There are several simple rules which govern the
motion of the image. Most importantly, as mentioned
above, the image must cross over the center fold of the
base page for it to pop-up. Having said this, it stands to
reason that a vertical fold is required on the image.
Placement of this fold on the image is not critical, nor
need it be located at the center of the image. The fold
should, however, be far enough in from the image j=s
edge to provide enough strength to pull itself up
without over stressing the glue tabs. A minimum of 12
to 15 mm Q/z") in width is recommended for small
pop-ups and upwards of 25 mm (1") for larger ones.
The "Glue Tabs" section below describes this in further
detail.

There are two ways the image can be folded: the
fold pointing towards the viewer or away from the
viewer. This positioning affects how the image moves
when the page is opened and closed. When the fold is
towards the viewer, the image folds up and away from
the viewer on opening and down towards the viewer on
closing. The opposite is true when the vertical image
fold is positioned away from the viewer. The figure
below will help to clarify this. It illustrates the fold
towards the viewer. For the other style the rules remain
the same. Simply turn this page upside-down.

Once location of the vertical fold has been set.
image placement on the spread can be determined. The

Centre Fold

Positioning Angle

Image
fold down
direction

Pop-up
Image

Top View of 180° Pop-up Spread

image must be placed on the spread at some angle
other than 90° to the center fold. I will call this the
positioning angle. Theoretically the spread will not
fold up if the image is positioned at right angles to the
page fold. In practice this can be done because paper is
flexible, however, doing so will not produce
satisfactory results. The image fold must be aligned
with the center fold (there are exceptions to this rule
which may be discussed in future articles).

It is important to place the image far enough away
from the front of the page spread so that it doesn't
protrude past the edges when the page is folded up. If
the image does protrude there are three choices to
make: move the image towards the back of the page
(for the illustration above); reduce the size of the
image or increase the size of the base page. Test your
design frequently. This will help you determine the
best position.

"What is the optimum positioning angle?" is now
the next question. There is no clear answer to this. Too
small an angle will make your image look like a sliver
from the front. An angle close to 90° will create
folding problems when the pop-up is closed (as
discussed earlier). And an angle over 90° reverses the
fold-down direction. It is best to select an angle that
suits the image you are using. For simplicity's sake, the
positioning angle should be the same on both sides of
the center fold. This does not have to be the case, but
using dissimilar angles creates complexities that are
best left alone at this time.

All along, the image fold and the glue tabs have
been assumed to be perpendicular to each other. A
right angle here makes the image stand up straight
when the spread is opened. This works well for many
designs, but is not always desired. Naturally, there is a
relationship between this angle which I will call the
stand-up angle and the positioning angle.

The figure above shows a typical pop-up image in
its flat state. Given a fixed positioning angle, reducing

Image Fold

Stand-Up
Angle

Glus Tabs

Typical Pop-up Image shown Flat

the stand-up angle causes the image to flatten towards
the page. The stand-up angle should be the same on
both sides of the image fold. Again, this is not
essential, but reduces the complexities when you are
learning. Try experimenting with several different
stand-up angles. You will quickly discover how the
relationship works. Also try changing the positioning
angles. Remember, reducing the positioning angle with
a fixed stand-up angle causes the image to stand up
taller, and reducing the stand-up angle with a fixed
positioning angle causes the image to flatten.

Glue Tabs:

Glue tabs are the essential link between the image
and the base spread. They are often incorporated into
the cut-out image (as shown above) folded backwards
and glued down so as not to be seen. However, they
can also be folded forwards. A forward folded glue tab
can be used to help flow the pop-up image visually
down onto the spread. One fine example of this is the
boat scene in The Phantom of the Opera1.

With tall, narrow images, glue tab strength is often
a concern because of the small glue surface area. If the
glue tabs are too small and narrow they can easily pull
away from the spread over time or when opened to
quickly. To resolve this, the tabs can be inserted
through slits cut into the spread and glued down from
the back side. This is well illustrated in my pop-up
book Foot for Thought4. These slits also act as locators
simplifying positioning during assembly. In some
cases, glue tabs can be made from separate pieces of
paper all together. This is the technique I often use
when prototyping a new pop-up.

Glue tabs are often angled on the edges to make
them less visible or easier to slide into slits. They
should also be cut back a short distance from the image
fold to reduce paper bulk at the fold line.

Multiple Images on the same Base Sheet:

Several images can be glued to the spread to create

much more interesting effects. All of the same rules
apply, but there are some hitches. The positioning
angle should be kept constant or slightly reduced from
front to back to allow the images to nest properly.
Images can also be positioned with image folds in both
directions. However, care should be taken so that they
do not interfere with each other on closing the spread.
It is generally advised to keep shorter in the front and
taller ones in the back. This will also keep the images
from sticking out beyond the closed spread. Finally,
the images can have different stand-up angles as well.
Again, if this is not carefully considered, interference
may occur.

In my next article I will discuss 90°. pop-ups and
how they can be combined with the classic 1 80° pop-up
describe above. Suggestions for future articles are
welcome. I encourage you to send me your comments
via e-mail at <bovine.designs@sympatico.ca>.

Footnotes

'. Holt, Rinehart Winston, 1986. Engineer: lb Penick

2. Golden Book, 1992. Engineers: Helen Balmer and
Roger Smith

3. Harper & Row, 1988. Engineer: van der Meer Paper
Design

4. Bovine Designs, 1998. Engineer: Ulf Stahmer

Catechetical Scenes, continued from page 2

5. Holy Church

6. Grace and Baptism

I . Confirmation

8. The Bread of Angels

9. The Blessed Eucharist

1 0. Holy Mass

I I . Confession 1

12. Confession 2 (Extreme-Unction)

13. Holy Orders & Matrimony

14. Prayer

15. The Law of Love 1

16. The Law of Love 2

1 7. The Law of Love 3

Titles in "The Mysteries of the Rosary" series:
Part I. The Joyful Mysteries
Part II. The Sorrowful Mysteries
Part III. The Glorious Mysteries

Titles identified in the "Illustrative Catechetical
Scenes" series:

13. The Birth of Jesus: The Adoration of the

Magi

How I met Attilio Mussino

Giuse Longo
Milan, Italy

I was only seven years old when I received a gift
from my daddy: a pop-up book called Le maschere
animate (more or less, "The living maskers"). I was
quite interested, excited and fascinated by this book,
the first of this kind I had ever seen, to the extent
that I never separated from it.

This book introduced me to a magic world. It was
like these living figurines would move around me to
speak with me and tell me their stories. I used to
thumb continuously through the book; the characters
were always the same, yet I believed to see new
scenes every time. With my fantasy, I could also
invent different stories from those which were
actually reported in the book.

Em still very fond of this book, because it started
my interest for pop-up books. As the years passed,
the collection has grown, and with it the study and
the knowledge of the production of these books. So, I
could appreciate the wonderful production of Lothar
Meggendorfer, who I believe was the best illustrator
of the 19th century. As a matter of fact,
Meggendorfer's books have been translated in all the
European languages, and everywhere they have been
very successful.

But I would like to go back to my first book, to
tell something more about it. As years go by, and
competence grows and one becomes more mature, I
developed a special admiration for its illustrator,
Attilio Mussino, one of the top artists in this field.

Following an agreement with the publisher
Franceschini from Florence, Attilio Mussino
illustrated Pinocchio in 1942, giving origin to the
production of pop-up books in Italy. Before him,
only translations and printings of successful books
from other European countries had been made. Also,
the USA used to import pop-up books produced in
Europe; the start of the US production is due to Walt
Disney, and took place in 1933.

Through time, I concentrated on collecting books
published by the Franceschini house, which
continued to base on Mussino's work its major
production. Other artists, though, worked for
Franceschini, among them Fernando Baldi, who
worked either by himself or in cooperation with
Mussino. They both knew how to effectively
interpret the tales they illustrated, by both the shapes

and the colors; this made the tales seem true and
credible. The pop-up pages, so well illustrated, take
shape and expand the tale in an almost endless
scenario, letting the reader get to the end like he or
she had invented it or seen it in a dream.

I would be quite pleased to show these books in
the next world-wide pop-up books exhibition, next
September. In that occasion, I'd like to also present
some other Italian books, so that other very talented
and innovative illustrators could be known. The
scenes are usually simple, the characters are usually
presented in amusing postures, with captivating
looks; their movements are realistic, and accentuate
their credibility, while, at the same time, displaying
the faults and the shortcomings of human beings.

Gimme (Twenty) Five!

Adie C. Pena
Makati, Philippines

In a day or so, the dreaded Y2K bug may wreak
havoc on our precious planet — and likewise put an
end to, among many other delightful diversions, the
Second Golden Age of Pop-ups. Or would the
anticipated PC pest's damage simply be
anti-climactic since this magical, movable era ended
a few years ago? Perhaps.

After doing an inventory of my recently acquired
pop-up possessions, I would like to make an
observation: 1999 wasn't a great year for movable
book collectors. I don't have the numbers to back up
that statement but if the contents in my Amazon
shopping cart this year are any indication, then that
might as well be an outright truth. (Fact: I ordered a
greater number of CDs and flat books than pop-ups
from Jeff Bezos' online outlet.)

Since more of the same old stuff was found on
real — and virtual! - bookstore shelves everywhere, it
would be an easy task to name the five (5)
must-haves of 1999. Of course, incurable collectors
(count me in!) couldn't resist purchasing the
"sequels" like Chuck Murphy's Bow Wow (the latest
in his wonderful B&W series); and the "unique"
(read: probably the first movable version) such as
Michael Bender's All the World's a Stage and
Andrew Baron's Hie Hobbit. After all, how many

pop-up Shakespeare biographies and Tolkien titles
are out there? So on with my very short list.

Three (3) of my top
five (5) have already been
reviewed in Movable
Stationery. These are 77?<?
New York Pop-Up Book
(Vol. 7 No. 4) by David
Hawcock; The Elements
of Pop-Up (Vol. 7 No. 3)
by David A. Carter and
James Diaz; and 77?<;
Pop-Up Book of Phobias
(Vol. 7 No. 3) by Matthew

Reinhart. The first two are obvious choices while the
third could be the subject of much debate. Why go
for a book with, to put it mildly, an uncommon
subject matter? Which is precisely the point. How
many pop-up artists are willing to stray from the
path well-taken? Not many, apparently. For every
two dozen dinosaur pop-up books there is only one
Pop-up Kama Sutra or Consummate Cigar Book or
Murphy's Law or Guinness Book of World Records.
Need I say more?

It may be worth mentioning that, along with the
Monet and the Norman Rockwell tie-back carousel
books and editor Marie Salerino's NY spectacular,
Phobias was selected as one of Entertainment
Weekly's "Picks of the Season" this December. Two
Christmases ago, this same mainstream magazine
recommended Ron van der Meer's Rock Pack and
Robert Sabuda's Cookie Count. Which brings me to
my final two choices — the latest by Maestros van
der Meer and Sabuda.

The twelfth in his series of movable packs and
kits, Ron van der Meer's The Formula One Pack
(Van der Meer Publishing, distributed in the UK by
Tango Books, ISBN: 1-9024-13156) is absolutely
awesome; while Robert Sabuda's thirteenth venture
as a paper engineer, The Movable Mother Goose
(Little Simon, ISBN: 0-689-81192-6) is utterly
inventive — skill and substance-wise. Mr. van der
Meer consistently continues to translate "mature"
topics (photography, art. cinema, musical theater,
architecture, wine, etc.) into fact-laden interactive
3-D spreads; while Mr. Sabuda keeps on
re-inventing the old staples (the alphabet and
counting books, Christmas, etc.) by giving them a
different spin, figuratively and literally! To say
anything more about their latest masterpieces would

be stating the obvious. These two artists (along with
some of the other names above) undoubtedly are
keeping the pop-up flame alive.

Frankfurt Book Fair 1999

Theo Gielen
The Netherlands

(Did I say "flame"? Yes, I did - and there are
days when one can't help ut think that we are now
experiencing a "pop-up burnout." Which leads us
back to the question: Is the Second Golden Age of
Pop-Ups truly over? I hope not. Though one wishes
that the mid-1980s
never went away.
Those were the times
when we first saw The
Facts of Life, The
Ultimate Cocktail, The
Royal Family, The
Story of the Statue of
Liberty, Sailing Ships,
The Beatles, Ben's
Box, and the birth of
the National
Geographic Action
Book series, just to
name a few.)

May the year 2000, barring any of the virtual
vermin's devastation, bring more NEW "unique"
titles — and more OLD stories told differently. (If
you must do something that has been done before, at
the very least, do it better — with a fresh new twist.
How can we forget the uninspired 1997 Elvis
Remembered which paled in comparison to the 1985
Elvisl A larger format AND a slipcase don't
necessarily mean better. Nothing still beats a great
idea.)

I look forward to opening Ron's next Pack
(will his much-awaited Magic Box ever see the light
of day?); and I can't wait to get my hands on Robert's
interpretation of The Wizard of Oz. Aside from
those two titles, I hope there will be more surprises
worth stuffing into my Y2K Amazon shopping cart.
So to all the other pop-up book artists out there,
please create more than five movable must-haves this
coming year. Gimme ten. Or make that twenty-five.
And let the Second Golden Age of Pop-Ups live on.
Keep on popping! (12/3 1/99)

Encouraged by the fact we met a member of the
Movable Book Society using last year's article as a
guide and checklist so as to be sure not to miss any
important packager or publisher, we set ourselves
again to write an impression of this year's book fair.

Our visit of the fair starts in the "international"
hall, housing publishers from all over the world,
except for those from England and America who
have their own hall. German publishers are so
numerous they need two halls to be accommodated.
Our first stop is always the stand of
Carvajal/Colombia since every year they proudly
present a survey of the highlights produced in the
year since last the last Fair. Doing so we get an
insight into what the makers think are representative
books of their best production. We also see the books
of the publishers who don't attend the fair and we
know which packagers/publishers we will not have to
look for. On display we found such collectibles as

Ron van der Meer
and Adam
Cooper, Formula
One Pack, David
Carter and James
Diaz, The
Elements of Pop-
up, Tolkien, The
Hobbit. A 3-D
Pop-up

Adventure, the
Curious George 's
pop-up storybook
House and Garry Greenberg, The Pop-up Book of
Phobias, this rather strange book picturing ten
phobias in a beautiful though surrealistic way on no
less than ten double spreads and having the severe
outlook of a scientific work normally not found in a
pop-up book.

We here saw also a new Disney pop-up: Tarzan:
Livre Anime Avec les Decors du Film, a carousel
book of four scenes without any text, designed by
Atelier Philippe Harchy, to be issued with a cassette
with the text and music of the story (Walt Disney
Records, WDR 341539) and apparently published

Continued on page 12

ROBERT SABUDA

1 ft - Awful

2 W - Poor

4 ft - Good

5 ft - Superb

I wanted to take a moment to thank all those MBS
members who supported me on the Boston to New
York AIDS ride 5. It was a heck of a ride (add a
hurricane and you know you're in for a wild ride) but
I made it. Your contributions helped raise over 2
million dollars for an exceptionally worthy and
timely cause and I can't thank you enough. And for
those of you who wanted to know if I had made any
more of my pop-up thank-you cards I didn't. Sorry!
If I had known I would have made more! I promise I
will for the next ride (details in a later issue of MS,
I'm hooked on this ride thing I tell ya, hooked!). And
Roz, don't worry I'll catch you next time. Thanks.

All the world's a stage - William
Shakespeare - A pop-up biography. By

Michael Bender. Paper Eng: Uncredited.
Chronicle Books. 0-8118-1147-6. $14.95. 22x22cm.
18 pgs. 5 multi-piece pops, 3 tab mechs, 10 flaps.
Art: Sort of 'folk arty', yet realistic pen/watercolor.
Plot: The life and works of the master. Chock full of
information and interesting tidbits. A lively
introduction to Elizabethan theater for young people.
Extra points for the abundant educational value.
Paper Eng: Simple

Catnip. By Dawn Bentley. Ill: Krisztina
Nagy. Paper Eng: Dennis K. Meyer. Piggy
Toes Press. 1-581 17-033-5. $9.95 US.
24x25cm. 10 pgs. 3 pops, 2 flap mechs, 3 flaps, 1
plastic locket in cover. Art: Humorous, cute
watercolor. Plot: A small cat counts all it's animal
friends. Simple and harmless. For very young
readers. Also: Dog Days, 1-581 17-053-x (which gets
a 3 1/2 because it has better art, pops and humor than
Catnip).

Don't do that! By Olivier Charbonnel.

Paper Eng: Uncredited. Infinity Plus One.

1-58260-007-4. $9.95 US, $14.95 Can.
18x19cm. 5 spreads. 1 pop, 6 tab/flap mechs (two
using hidden elastic bands). Art: Humorous, bright
paintings. Plot: The consequences of teasing animals.
Fun and simple. A very unusual pop of a turtle
transforms into a party scene on the last spread. Paper
Eng: Somewhat complex.

Flip-pop colors. James R. Diaz. Piggy Toes
Press. 1-581 17-067-x. $9.95 US. $14,956
Can. 1 15x1 5cm. 10 pages. 10 pops. Art:

Humorous, pen and brightly colored computer
generated flat colors. Plot: Fun ways to learn about
colors. Interesting concept since the pages are split
corner to coiner on a diagonal. The triangular,
diagonal conceals the pop-up underneath.
For very young readers. Paper Eng: Simple. Also:
Flip-pop counting, 1-58117-068-8.

Guess how much I love you? A pop-up
edition. By Sam McBratney. Ill: Anita
Jeram. Paper Eng: Uncredited. 0-7636-
0675-8. Candlewick Press. $17.99 US, $19.99 Can.
21x21cm. 14 pgs. 1 large & 1 small multi-piece pop-
ups, 8 tab mechs. Art: Beautiful, delicate pen/water-
color. The classic tale on parental bunny love now
moves! Surprisingly understated interpretation of the
original with a nice combination of appropriate
movement for the mechanisms. So why is the paper
engineer uncredited? Paper Eng: Somewhat
complex.

I don't want to sleep tonight. By

"American Television Personality" Deborah
Norville. Ill: Rachael O'Neill. Paper Eng:
Uncredited. Golden Books. 0-307-10609-8. $12.99
US. 24x24cm. 6 spreads. 1 large pop, 1 tab mech, 20
flaps. Art: Poorly executed pastels. Plot: Things that
go bump in the night. Poetry isn't that bad, but the art
drags things down. For very young readers. Paper
Eng: Very simple.

The not so itsy-bitsy spider. By Dawn
Bentley. Ill: Yumi Heo. Paper Eng: Dennis
Meyer & Jose Seminario. Piggy Toes Press.
1-58117-051-3. $12.95 US, $19.95 Can. 21x18cm. 6
spreads. 4 mulit-piece pops, 1 pull tab. Art: Brushy,
almost abstract, watercolor. Plot: All the local insects
gather for a party while trying to keep it a secret from
a very large spider. Fun text, unusual illustrations and
actual black fuzzy legs on the spider make this a
treat. Paper Eng: Somewhat complex.

Pop-up: Llibres movibles i

tridimensionals. Fundacio Caiza de Girona.

No ISBN. 21x30cm. 132 pgs. 2 pops, 6 flaps,
1 wheel in cover. Art: Color photographs. Plot: This is
the exhibition catalog for the show of pop-up books in
Cirona, Catalunya, Spain organized by MBS member
Quim Corominas. It is by far one of the most beautiful
catalogs I've ever seen for an exhibition of this type. The
photos are great and the reproductions of the movables
(especially the one in the cover) are top notch. A must
have for any collector. Paper Eng: Simple. The Movable
Book Society purchased copies which are available for
$70.00, including postage in the US. To purchase a copy

contact Ann Montanaro at P.O. Box 1 1654, New
Brunswick, NJ 08906, or montanar@rci.rutgers.edu.

^^^ The puzzled penguin. By Keith Faulkner.
A-tvK 111: Jonathan Lambert. Paper Eng:
■SL^" Uncredited. The Millbrook Press. 0-7613-
1042-8. $1 1.95. 25x25cm. 7 spreads. 6 pops. Art:
Humorous, but sumptuous, hand-painted cut collage
paper. Plot: The team that created The wide-mouthed
frog and The long nosed pig introduce a penguin with
an identity crisis. Bright, big and fun. Paper Eng:
Simple.

Row your boat. By Anthony Lishak. Ill:
Graham Percy. Paper Eng: Uncredited. DK
Ink. 0-7894-3489-x. $14.95 US. 20x25cm.
6 spreads. 6 multi-piece pops that are basically
frames. 4 tab/flap mechs, 5 flaps. Art: Humorous, but
delicately drawn colored pencil. Plot: An updated
version of the children's song acted out by
anthropomorphic animals. Beautiful art but maybe it
just should have been a picture book. Paper Eng:
Simple.

The twelve bugs of Christmas. By David
A. Carter. Little Simon. 0-689-83104-8.
$14.95 US, $21.95 Can. 23x18cm. 12
spreads. 1 multi-piece pop, 11 flap mechs. Art:
Humorous, colorful computer generated illustrations.
Plot: The classic song given the buggy treatment. A
true holiday delight, especially the last spread. A
great update for all Yuletide enthusiasts. Paper Eng:
Complex.

We love preschool. By Tim Warnes. Paper
Eng: Damien Johnston. The Millbrook
Press. 0-7613-0430-4. $9.95 US, $14.50
Can. 23x1 7cm. 5 spreads. 1 pop, 8 tab/flap mechs, 8
flaps. Art: Humorous, simple paintings. Plot: The
various activities that occur during a day at pre-
school. Sweet and cute for very young readers. Paper
Eng: Simple.

The wheels on the bus - a musical pop-up
book. Design: Willabel L. Tong. Ill:
Rosanne Litzinger. Paper Eng: Renee
Jablow. The Millbrook Press. 0-7613-1276-5. $15.95.
25x23cm. 10 pgs. 7 pull tabs, 2 wheels, 4 flaps, and 1
musical chip on the cover. Art: Humorous pencil/
watercolor. Plot: The classic children's song about
urban transportation. Why do we need another
version of this after Paul O. Zelinsky's classic? But
still a very nice interpretation. Paper Eng: Simple.

Where's Alfie? By Matthew Price. Ill:
Emma Chichester Clark. Paper Eng: Steve
Augarde. Orchard Books. 0-531-30126-5.
$9.95 US. 19x19cm. 12 pgs. 5 tab mechs, 1 flap. Art:
Humorous pen/watercolor. Plot: A young bear hides
from his mother to avoid going to bed. Quiet and
delightful in a very British way. Cute without
patronizing (which is rare these days). Paper Eng:
Simple. Also: Don't worry, Alfie, 0-531-30127-3.

Whiskers & kisses - a picture frame pop-
up book. Ill: Karen Bell. Paper Eng: Rafael
Rangel. Pop-up Press. 1-888443-13-8. $7.95
US, $11.95 Can. 13x1 9cm. 6 spreads. 5 pops, 1 tab
mech, 1 paper frame to insert a photo of a feline
family member. Art: Realistic watercolor. Plot:
Quotes about the trials and tribulations of being a cat.
Certainly unusual since the frame attaches to the
front and back cover of the book to create a triangular
structure that stands up like an actual picture frame.
Whatever. Paper Eng: Simple.

THE 3RD MOVABLE BOOK
SOCIETY CONFERENCE

SEPTEMBER 21 to 23, 2000«NEW YORK CITY

Apriti Libro! A Review

Theo Gielen.
The Netherlands

Pietro Franchi, APRITI LIBRO!
Meccanismi, figure, tridimensionalita in libri
dalXWalXXsecolo.
Ravenna, Edizioni Essegi, 1998.
"Parva Rara" Collezionismo No. 3.
140 p. 225x225 cm.
ISBN 88-7189-253-4.
Lire 75.000 (ca. $ 45.00).

Intrigued by the translation of a small part of this
Italian book about "mechanisms, pictures and
threedimensionality in books from 16th to 20th
century ,"and generally interested in reading about the
history of movable books, we ordered for a copy. And
what a wonderful surprise when the book appeared on
our doormat.

Wondering how the 1 '/2-page translation in the
August 1999 issue of Movable Stationery could have
been full seven pages in the original book, the book
itself solved this mystery at first glance. The largest
part of the seven pages proved to contain pictures of
the books the text, plus a facsimile of the letter of
Lorenzo Franceschini mentioned in the text,
advertisements for some series of movable books, etc.
All of the sometimes rather cryptic connections within
the text, as translated for MS, were put in context
within the pages of the original Italian book.

Apriti libro! (a variant of Sesame open!) is a
great book, in the tradition of Peter Haining's well-
known Movable Books, published some twenty years
ago. Though smaller than Haining's book and without
its gatefolds, Mr. Franchi's book can easily be
compared with that 1979 British gem. Especially for
the huge number of color pictures of movables, pop-
ups and books with superimposed plates from - mostly
- Mr. Franchi's private collection. This doesn't only
include Italian books as the title might suggest, but a
lot of English, French, and German titles. And in
contrast to Mr. Haining's book, here all the books
have a bibliographical description and an annotation
of their contents, sometimes their original edition or
other interesting things about the particular title. It
makes the book very informative.

After a short editorial note the pages 11-18 give a

classification and terminology of fourteen types of
movable and pop-up books, shortly annotated but
illustrated with pages from mostly antique books
using the techniques as described. The next chapter,
pages 19-58, tells the history of movable books,
starting about 1277 with Ars Magna Generalis by
Ram6n Llull and ending with recent highlights as
Pienkowski's Haunted house and the National
Geographic Series. And again the text has been
illustrated profusely with (black and white) pictures:
no less than 78 pictures of front covers of the books
in the text, but also publishers' advertisements listing
their other movables, catchpenny prints, a children's
magazine or the colophon of a book with interesting
dates - all matching the history as told on these
pages. To illustrate this chapter Mr. Franchi reserved
pictures of the outsides of the books - mostly their
front covers - keeping back the movable and pop-up
contents of them for an other part of his book.

Next over 70 pages, (59-131), give the descriptive
list of just over one hundred and twenty titles with
their bibliographical dates and annotations. Starting
with a 1540 edition of Petrus Apianus, Cosmographia
and some other early editions with volvelles and/or
pull-tabs, the list contains over one hundred
antiquarian books and ends with a few (8) modern
pop-up books. And when the cover of a listed book is
pictured in the earlier chapter, a reference to the
corresponding page is been given. This part of the
book is great since there are always two pages of
descriptive text alternating with a double-page with
beautiful color pictures of the movable or pop-up
pages from the listed books, always done against a
red background. Even in this part the text pages are
often additionally pictured in black and white. But
exactly 200 color plates illustrate in this part the
insides of almost every listed book, often with
pictures of movable pages in different stages of their
movement.

The bibliography contains some 30 original
Italian titles, mostly form the 1930s and onwards.
There are also some 20 books as published in Italian
language but originating abroad (e.g, Meggendorfer
and Disney), and some fifty foreign language books
showing highlights from the productions of Dean &
Son, Nister, Tuck, Schreiber, Bookano, Disney, and
others. A special part describes and pictures some 25
technical and biological books with superimposed

10

plates dating from the early years of the 20th century,
published in Italian but originally published in other
languages.

The book ends with three very short sections about
the collecting of movable books, the market of
antiquarian movables and about their restoration, and
is completed with a two-page bibliography listing the
most important publications on the subject as
published in, respectively, English, German, French
and Italian. One of the titles in this list of Italian
references reveals the origins of this book as being the
(rewritten?) book-publication of an 1 996 catalog that
accompanied an exhibition of Mr. Franchi's collection
in Calderara di Reno. Mr. Franchi, a member of the
MBS, is an antiquarian bookseller in Bologna by
profession and a collector, restorer and paper engineer
by passion. The book is part three of a series called
"Parva Rara" Collezionismo, the first two parts of the
series dealing with religious and devotional ephemera.

After all our praise of Mr. Franchi's book we have
some minor remarks. But let nobody be put off by this
and fail to buy the book! We had hoped to read the
history of the movable and pop-up books in Italy. In
this aspect the book succeeds only partly since it gives
us only for the 1930s and 1940s some insight in the
specific Italian production. We would liked to read
more about the publishing of Italian editions of books
originating abroad as done, for example, by Casa
Editrice Hoepli, Editrice Vallardi, Fratelli Treves but
also by other Italian publishing houses from the 19th
century and after. Several Italian editions of
Meggendorfer titles are given, but what about Nister
and Raphael Tuck: have there been Italian editions of
their books too? What about the Blue Ribbon books:
have they been published in Italian as they are in
Spanish? What about the Italian editions of the
Schreiber Stehauf-Bilderbiicher from which are only
given two titles, and about their publisher Casa
Editrice Mediterranea? And did this publisher do only
that series or did they published they other movables
as well? How did the fascist regime of Mussolini use
these books? Several titles and pictures suggest such a
special interest. And the same probably can be said for
the catholic church. Maybe it was not the intention of
Mr. Franchi to give more than that and are we only
formulating our reading-wishes. Nevertheless we hope
Mr. Franchi will continue his work with some
additional publications (in Movable Stationery!) on
the history of movables in Italy since he gives

evidence in his book of an extensive knowledge of the
subject.

As so often in publications on this beloved
category of books, the dating of the books is
problematic, in this book too. And although
suggesting to give definitive years of publication for
most of the listed books, the notation at least is not
always consequent: sometimes the year is given as
appearing in the books where we know there isn't any
in it; at other places the year is given in square
brackets as usually done when the year doesn't
appear in the book but has been reconstructed
definitively from other sources; and sometimes are
"circa"-years given. We had hoped for more
information about the reliability of the given dates.
The is especially true since some years of publication
as given in the bibliography differ from the years
given when describing the history in an earlier
chapter: the Royal Moveable Punch & Judy gets
"1881" on p.27 but has "1870" on p.70; the
Cinematographe Album a Surprises has "1900" on
p. 41 and "1890" on p. 91; or Hoepli's carrousels that
get "1938" on p.45 and "1940" on p.87.

Missing also is a clear accounting of the
location of the enclosed books. We thought all of the
books were in Mr. Franchi's collection; nevertheless
we found such notes as: "reproduced from a catalog"
(nr. 2), and "a modern reconstruction" (nr. 3). A
couple of titles are given as not seen but found in a
contemporaneous publishers catalog (nrs. 39-42), but
it is unclear if this includes all the included titles. A
relevant question since an other part of the
bibliography (nrs. 91-102) gives 12 titles from the
1916 catalog of the latter firm where an
advertisement of this firm as pictured on p.51 doesn't
give one of the 12 but does gives some others that are
not enclosed in the bibliography. And, strangely
enough, nr. 48 gives a title that proves to be only a
part of the book as listed under nr. 39.

As said, these are just minor remarks that surely
shouldn't deter anyone from immediately ordering a
copy of the book and from enjoying it time after time.
It really is a great addition to the few books published
on the subject until now: a great lay-out, beautifully
illustrated, clearly divided into good chapters about
various aspects of the subject, picturing first the
outsides of the described books and later their insides.
and giving all kinds of additional related documents.
A must-have, even if you don't read Italian!

11

mr. pop-up

ATLAS

<J| Till \\ OKI I)

Frankfurt Book Fair, continued from page 7

only in French. They also showed the English edition
of Francois Michel's book (published in 1998 in
French and German): The Pop-up Atlas of the World,
Pavillion Books, London, 1-8620-5299-9, also as A
Guided Tour of the World, Press Elan, Toronto, 1 -
55144-234-5. Nice and innovative, we thought,
Amazing Machines: A
Workshop Full of Bits for
Every Wacky Plea!
Scholastic, 0-590-51569-1,
storing thirty-two parts such
as wheels, power shovels and
hole diggers that snap in
position to create great
working machines to enable
the young mechanics to create
power shovels, moon vehicles,
robots and submarines, but also all kinds of fabulous
and outlandish machines by mixing the play pieces.
The grommets that hold the pieces in position allow
the parts to rotate in an articulated fashion! Finally,
we admired Max's Machines: The Best Pop-up Book
Ever, with paper engineering by Willy Bullock
(Scholastic, London, 0-590-54264-8) bringing three
robust machines popping up from the folds of the
pages, one of them a great plane with a working
ejector seat.

In a talk with Mr. Julio C. Monroy, the general
manager of Cargraphics, one of the divisions of
Carvajal, we learned it was their 25th year of
producing pop-up books in Colombia. He told us that
the competition of new media and also the of low
labor rates in south east Asia, especially China, cause
substantial rivalry, resulting in a reduction of the
number of titles they produce annually. Three years
ago Carvajal moved their production lines to
neighboring Ecuador, both
reducing the costs and creating
a better possibility to export
the books by ship from the
Ecuadorean harbors. He
showed us how, for example,
Keith Moseley's Anne of '
Green Gables, a book with a
nice paper sculpture in the
front of the book and
published by Key Porter Books
(1-55263-060-4) already has the imprint: "Printed in
Colombia and hand assembled in Ecuador." Mr.

Monroy said the more complex paper artwork is still
always done by Carvajal since others, especially
China, lack the expertise to do it. New for us was
hearing that Disney made a video of the production of
Robert Sabuda's ABC Disney, to promote the book.
Has anybody seen this?

It was most interesting, however, to see new
movable, pop-up and novelty books in the large hall
where the British and American publishers have their
stands. And although everywhere could be heard that
the pop-up market stagnates, particularly for the more
elaborate, expensive books, there could be seen here a
lot of good new products the packagers will try to
bring out in the coming year. Due to the withdrawal
of such big firms as Random House, Disney, P/S/S
and Reed Children's books from the pop-up market
during last years, this market has problems and the
packagers admitted it now openly. The phenomenon
is not new; we wrote about it already some years ago
- not always to the pleasure of everybody involved.
As a result, several of the companies that had
operated as mere packagers before, have founded
their own publisher's imprints (e.g., Tango Books,
Pop-Up Press, Piggy Toes Press, Van der Meer
Publishing) or organized their own distribution
through local publishers in various countries. As a
direct consequence of this policy Van der Meer
Publishing didn't even have their own stand this
year, where they have been present in such a
promotional way in previous years. As described in
the article about them in the May 1999 issue of the
Movable Stationery, the firm has become a
publishing house to bring out the books by Ron by
themselves - no longer selling the rights to other
publishers. And, since the Frankfurt Book Fair is a
rights fair, it is understandable they no longer attend.
The books they have just published, and a glimpse of
what the year to come will bring could be seen at the
stand of their British distributors. Tango Books/Sadie
Fields, where Ron was also present for a couple of
days.

Just ready was Ron's Formula One Pack and
A nimals in Love: A Three-dimensional Tour of the
Very Private Lives of Animals: Adults Only. (1-
902413-34-2) illustrated by Michel Bridenne and
paper engineered by Ron himself with Nghiem Ta.
Several other projects, last year announced for
publication in 1999. were postponed: Uri Geller and
Ron van der Meer, Para Science Pack: A Stunning

12

3-D Interactive Journey Through the Paranormal, and
also Understanding Drugs. The later book doesn't
have any pop-ups, only movables, but it shows a
technique we have never seen before: kind of a rattle-
technique in paper that with every movement shows
an other page of the book.

From their new projects we saw the dummies of
The Busyman's Cook Pack: Twenty No Fail Three
Course Meals for Two by Ron and the popular BBC-
television cook Gary Rhodes. It is a trendy cookbook
with a pop-up grater, a pop-up piece of cheese and a
movable picture of Mr. Rhodes' special hairdress in
the front cover. The Village Garage will be a three-
department fold-out pop-up in the tradition of the
earlier Market Day or Orchard Farm, using now a
rather small format which will be standard for Van
der Meer's children's publications in the future. Ron's
brother Guus, told us the Mathmaster series will be
followed by three parts of a Sciencemaster series,
again for the 3+, 5+ and 7+. Talking with Guus about
the decreasing market he frankly admitted it and also
thought it was caused by "too much of the same" and
was thinking of more innovation in the field for
recovery.

He showed us the new book by Keith Moseley, A
Busy Day for Santa, with its beautiful paper sculpture
built in the front cover and visible behind an acetate
window; and he pointed out the security they now
build in each copy of their books: a non-removable
hologram sticker showing the well-known pointed red
shoes of Ron, as a hallmark to prevent illegal copies
that apparently sometimes come to the market.

Sadie Fields/Tango Books had the new Pete
Bowman Little Owl's Christmas (1-85707-432-7), a
pop-up book with press-out clothes and a removable
mini-playhouse; a new Emma Damon title The Moon
and Alice Beazley (1-85707-442-4), a shaped book
with flaps, die-cut windows and foils, and a glow-in-
the-dark press-out mobile; and a great Witch Zelda's
Birthday Cake (1-85707-406-8) by the young Bulgaria
born Eva Tatcheva. It is a pumpkin-shaped pop-up
book with seven spreads, added foil and string, and
movements by pull-tabs and wheels, his same
Tatcheva will have a sequel next year: Witch Zelda s
Christmas. Next spring will be published Abby
Irvine's, Dougie Duck Can 't Swim, a pop-up variation
of Andersen's Ugly Duckling, to come with a badge.
Also in the spring: Harriet Griffey, Ruby the Ballet
Star and Maureen Roffey's pop-up interpretation of

Old MacDonald; and Jonathan Allen, Don 't Wake
the Baby (1-85707-449-1). It has a different noise on
every spread made by pulling a tab: a father caring
for his baby one evening, falls asleep himself, and
wakes up at every little noise of a cat, a cuckoo clock,
breaking dishes, etc. It is kind of a sequel to Allen's
earlier Wake up Sleeping Beauty.

At the stand of Ottenheimer we saw some very
nice pop-up books that suggested that the firm will
again be in the market as a packager with highly
collectable pop-ups, after the failure of their earlier
attempt with the quality imprint Wild Honey whose
great dummies hardly ever have reached the status of
a published book.

Now they showed a pop-up by Keith Moseley: The
Bible Alphabet, published by Broadman & Holman,
Nashville (0-80541-288-3) with eight flaps on every
double spread hiding beautiful pop-ups in blanks.
From the same publisher and with a same design of
blank pop-ups behind flaps - reminiscent of Robert
Sabuda's work! - also The First Noel: A Holiday
Pop-up Book, illustrated by Pat Paris and paper
engineered by Evan Mack and Andrew Murphy. On
display also were two books inspired by Kubasta's
Panascopic Models series, with one huge pop-up
within a cover: All Aboard the Ark: A Giant Pop-up
Book by Dudley Moseley, published by Concordia
Publ. House, St. Louis (0-570-05588-4), and The
First Christmas: Giant Pop-up Nativity and Lift-the-
flap Advent Calendar, by Stuart Moseley and Sarah
Smith, published by Broadman & Holman (0-
80542034-7), showing respectively a pop-up ark and
a pop-up nativity (though looking more like a
gingerbread-house). It is not known to us how far
family ties are involved for the Moseley's and
Murphy's.

Random House continues the Kate Patty and
Jennie Maizels cooperation with The Magnificent
Music Book, published by Bodley Head (0-370-
32377-7) and as The Amazing Pop-up Music Book by
Dutton (0-525-46160-4), and showed the dummy of
another sequel: The Wonderful World Book to come
in 2000.

Around the corner, in a next row, Simon and
Schuster/Little Simon proudly presented the new
Robert Sabuda The Movable Mother Goose: A
Classic Collectible Pop-up (0-689-81192-6).

13

unfortunately here in a rather misfolded copy; and the
new Chuck Murphy Bow Wow: A Pop-up Book of
Shapes (0-689-82265-0) from his series of square
books with the black and white covers. Of course the
great David Carter and James Diaz must-have for any
collector of pop-up books: The Elements of Pop-up;
the new David Carter titles The 12 Bugs of Christmas
(0-689-83104-8) and Giggle Bugs: A Lift-and-laugh
Book (0-689-81859-9). They also had a great dummy
of David Carter's adaptation of The Nutcracker, quite
different from what we have known from him until
now. To come next year.

A nice surprise
awaited us in the stand
of Workman
Publishing, New York,
where the magician and
game designer Mark
Setteducati himself
demonstrated his first
movable/pop-up book:
The Magic Show: 12
Awe-inspiring Tricks: Dazzle Yourself. Dazzle Your
Friends! (0-761 1-1595-1), paper engineered by Anne
Benkovitz consulted by Tor Lokvig. The book has ten
double spreads that became really magic under the fast
fingers of the magician who designed them. The
demonstration grew quickly into a friendly contest
with the magician demonstrating and challenging us
to clear which paper techniques/tricks were used for
the subsequent spreads. We had a nice talk with the
maker who showed us all kinds of details in the
illustrations that give you the illusion of getting into
the magician's mind. A subtle use of doors gives the
idea of going through a house of magic, and cross-
references to the book with magic tricks published the
year before by his friend and colleague magician Ivan
Moscovich, The Think Tank. It is a great book,
reusable also when your audience knows all the tricks
since an envelope at the end has a second set of props
to make several of the tricks new again! Be sure to get
a copy for the mere $18.95 asked for it.

When exchanging adresses at the end of our
playing hour Mr. Setteducati puzzled us once more
since his card looked like a magic trick too. It is a flat
black box, that, when opened to read the name, adress
etc. are seen in the built-in mirror.

Bellew Publishing from London had, of
course, their The New York Pop-up Book. In the
December issue of Movable Stationery it was already
enthusiastically praised by Mrs. Ellen G.K. Rubin. It
was also at the fair on display at Rizzoli's and at the
stand of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. However
we thought we had a lot to do to have an impression
of all there is in the book! A new trend to avoid
complex constructions and/or too many glue-points?
Bellew also had Monet's House at Giverny: With
Fold-out Garden (1-85725-142-3 or for the Rizzoli
edition: 0-7893-0238-3) by Bob Hersey; and by the
same: Norman Rockwell: A Pop-up Art Experience
(1-85725-147-4; Rizzoli: 0-7893-0366-3), both
sequels to the earlier Van Gogh's House and to be
followed next year by Elvis Presley 's Graceland for
which we saw the dummy. Plans for other parts
include the painters Gainsborough, Constable and
Peter Paul Rubens. Just published was Leonardo 's
Studio. A Pop-up Portfolio (1-85725-145-8) by Mira
Kliger, a two-story 3-D evocation of the artist's life
and works. The pop-up building comes accompanied
by two informative booklets about the many talents of
this Renaissance artist who is said to have been a
"homo universalis."

Electric Paper showed a new series of four
informative books on animals, each with a
naturalistic pop-up of the animal described: a lizard,
a monkey, a frog and a woodpecker. The last one was
particularly great and we cannot remember having
seen a pop-up woodpecker in any book before.

And Brainwaves again had a whole bunch of
novelty, movable and pop-up books done by Keith
Faulkner. Amongst them The Dust Fairy (0-439-
10804-7) and The Dawn Fairy (0-439-10805-5)
published by Cartwheel Books, and both with fairies
loosely laid in the frontcovers that balance magically
on the tip of a finger; and Web Willy in Cyberspace:
A Virtual Vision 3-D Adventure, with a do-it-yourself
"Free Cvber Mask" inside.

Running Press

presented the just
published Tlie Civil
War: A New View in
Close-up 3-D (0-7624-
0614-3) by Marc Frey.
And Chronicle Books
has finally published

14

Michael Bender's, All the world's a stage: A pop-up
biography of William Shakespeare (0-81 18-1 147-6) of
which we had already seen the dummy in 1995.

Breslich & Foss announced two pop-up books
paper-engineered by Corina Fletcher: The Music Pop-
up: First Pop Up and Learn, an introduction to
musical instruments with illustrations by Jan Lewis,
and a lovely Ghoul School illustrated by David
Roberts, revealing in five interactive spreads the
secrets of what goes on in a school for ghosts. The
only book an aspiring young spook will ever need! B
& F will also bring Amazing Interactive Mazes:
Brain-teasing Puzzles for Kids of all Ages by Adrian
Fisher, including die-cut, page-turning mazes, slide-
out convertible mazes and 3-D mazes as well as mazes
which challenge with disappearing paths.

One of our favorite paper engineers remains Steve
Augarde who only does books for very young children
with simple paper artwork, but so sophisticated and
innovative! This year, his packager, Matthew Price
Ltd, showed a new series of four booklets: Little Red
Car Stories, to come in 2000; and the two recently-
published books When I Grow Up ... in which a little
boy dreams of what he might be when he grows up:
bus driver or astronaut, submarine commander or big
crane operator. And Here Comes the Lifeboat (Orion,
1-8588-1635-1) with the technique that puzzled us
last year.

Hawcock Books, firm of an another well-
known paper-engineer, David Hawcock, and his wife
had The Life-size Pop-up Alien Book (Madcap, 0-233-
99686-9 and Golden Books 0-307-33203-9), a fold-out
pop-up poster in the tradition of his earlier Dracula
Spectacular or last year's Amazing Pop-up 3-D Time
Scape. It will be followed next year by The Life-size
Pop-up Mummy in a Book that unfolds in
Tutankhamun's mummy and its mummy case with the
well-known golden mask. They also showed a dummy
of The Incredible Wearable Animal Mask Book with
four complete masks popping up from between the
pages and ready to take out and wear, a parallel to The
Metropolitan Museum of Arts Masks published in
1997. The Pop-up Chess Learn and Play Set will have
a built-in chessboard folding down with the pieces to
play the game. But the most wonderful of his books is
his recreation in paper of the Amazing Dome Pop-up
Book (Dorling Kindersley, 0-7513-5146-6) in which
the London Millennium Dome built in Greenwich to

celebrate the new millennium, unfolds as a
panascopic model. A gem for any collection and a
beautiful souvenir of the year 2000 that will prove to
be a collector's item.

And, of course, we visited Interv isual Books
Inc. to have a long talk with Mr. Waldo Hunt about
"the state of the nation," i.e., the pop-up market. He
also confirmed the market is very difficult for the
more elaborate and expensive pop-up books.
Nevertheless, he had a better fair than last year's and
showed us the figures of this year's orders to prove it.
Nevertheless, Intervisual nowadays concentrates
clearly on the inexpensive and simple books, often
board books with touch and feelies, foils or simple
movements appropriate for the general market of
toyshops, department stores and such. And, although
their fair catalog lists fifty-five items, there are just a
few that collectors will find of interest. Paul
Stickland, The Christmas Express (1-581 1-7048-3), a
holiday playset with a wind-up toy train and playing
the "Jingle bells" tune, in the tradition of Choo Choo
Charlie, Fire Engine Freddie and The Big Race.
They also have the new informative pack of The
Heroes of Space (1-5811-7054-8) in the tradition of
the 'Elvis-pack' or the Harley Davidson book. To
come in 2000 is a new sequel: The National Hockey
League: A Three-dimensional History of the World's
Fastest Game, celebrating the 80-year history of the
League. And in the same size, The Wizard of Oz,
written by Jay Scarfone and William Stillman, that
will bring the favorite scenes of the film on its five
spreads: the Twister, Munchkin Land, Haunted
Forest, Witch's Castle and Emerald City. It also has a
sound chip playing the classic songs "Somewhere
over the Rainbow" and "Follow the Yellow Brick
Road." To play it safe, Intervisual is also bringing
out reprints of Ron and Atie van der Meer's, Amazing
Animal Senses and Your Amazing Senses; the well-
known "Giant Looks at Little Bugs," Beetle and
Spider published years ago by Stewart, Tabori &
Chang; the classic Tasha Tudor 's Christmas Village:
A 3-D Advent Calendar and her Book of Christmas.
A remake of The Honeybee and the Robber by Eric
Carle will have the same contents as the earlier
editions but a new, movable cover using the
technique used in the front cover of The Genius of
Lothar Meggendorfer (1985). But we also liked also a
rather simple but innovative What Makes a Rainbow
by Ann Schwartz and illustrated by Dora Turner, a
book adding a different colored ribbon with the turn

15

of each page resulting in a nice rainbow pop-up spread
at the end incorporating all the ribbons.

To come also in the year 2000 will be Mr. Hunt's
80th birthday! He is still going strong and rejecting
any suggestions of retiring. On the contrary, he is still
coaching young talents with much pleasure and giving
them the opportunity to publish; recently for example
the young Hungarian illustrators and paper engineers
Krisztina Nagy whose third part of her Touch and
Learn series Christmas Bear comes next year; or
Laszlo Batki who will bring a new project for
Intervisual at the next Bologna fair.

Mr. Batki attended the fair and we met him at
Mr. Hunt's showing his new pop-up book published
only in German: Der Rattenfanger von Hameln with
text by Arnica Esterl and published by Schreiber from
Esslingen (3-480-20262-4). It tells the story of the
Pied Piper of Hamelin but with a twist: through a
beehive-shaped lift in the last spread we can have a
look in the mountain where the piper brings the
children.

Finally we arrived
in the German halls
and can list some
more books only seen
only published in
German. At
Ravensburger was
the new book of the
Czech grand old lady
Kveta Pacovska
Rotrothorn, (3-473-33771-4) about a red rhinoceros,
but about so much more. "Hardly a book anymore but
more of a house to live in with mirror foil and die-cuts
that open a complete view in different livings, lobbies
and siderooms, done in her favorite red sometimes
starkened by a contrasting green" as the review by a
german authority in the field reads. A highlighting
artist's book for the general market, to come in a
slipcase. A must indeed.

The publishing house of Coppenrath from
Munster had a new series of six mini-carousel books
(75x50 mm) to label your Christmas presents. Karin
Blume, Christina Thran and Christian Kampf did
each the illustrations for two of them: Die
Engelwerkstatt (Angels workshop, 3-8157-1856-2),
Die Weihnachtsgeschichte (The First Christmas, 3-

8157-1855-4), Die
Bescherung (Christmas
gifts, 3-8157-1857-0),
Baren Weihnacht
(Christmas of the
Bears, 3-8157-1858-9),
Winterwald (Winter
forest, 3-8157-1859-7)
and Weihnachtsmarkt
(Christmas fair, 3-
8157-1860-0). It is a
desirable set for lovers of miniature books.

The Munich-based Ars Edition brings an
innovative Labyrinthe der Dritten Dimension
(Labyrinth of the third dimension, 3-760-1290-8) that
has a great pop-up or 3-D effect on each double
spread showing the way through the labyrinths: an
expedition in the pyramids, a medieval knight scene
to unravel an hostile castle, an astronaut's adventure
on an unknown planet, etc. And the Konemann
publishers from Cologne - having for sure the most
remarkable catalog, a heavy clothbound coffee table
book of hundreds of pages all beautifully pictured -
will bring next autumn the marvelous Exploring
Space: A Pop-up Book, in no less than ten different
European languages (English included) It has
wonderful paper artwork on four big and five small
pop-up spreads by Anton Radevsky - whose great
dummy of the unpublished The World of Architecture
we praised last year. The book will overshadow lots
of other pop-up books already published on the
subject. Konemann also brings Keith Moseley's The
Victorian House Book (3-8290-2528-9) and The
Mediaeval Nativity (3-8290-25 19-X) paper
engineered by Mark Hiner, opening in one large
(392x630 mm!) spread with a manger scene designed
after three famous paintings from the 15th and 16th
century.

Antje von Stemm, known from her White Heat
books Nightmare Hotel and Nightmare Cafe, now
comes with a do-it-yourself book from Rowohlt:
Fraulein Pop und Mrs. Up (The young lady Pop and
Mrs. Up, in the series RoRoRo Rotfuchs) with a
subtitle that reads "their big tour through paper-
country."

Thinking of do-it-yourselves, we are reminded of
the presence of two British firms specializing in
movable paper toys or so called "automata." The first

16

one is Flying Pig from Maryport in Cumbria that
showed their first six animated models to cut out and
make yourself: Surfin ' the Web, Mexican Peck, Flying
Pig, Ruminations, Impatience on the Impatient
Outpatient and Exercising Fool. Great fun once you
succeed in gluing them together in the appropriate
way. Four of them have also been published in book-
form from Tarquin Publications as Paper Automata
(1-8996- 182 1-X). They announced a new range of
Snap Ups, animals such as a frog and a butterfly
animated by an elastic band to make them jump up.
The publisher has a great website (www.flying-
pig.co.uk) where the models can be seen moving.

The other firm was Arcturus Publishing Ltd.

from London that showed their first eight products for
which they were trying to sell the rights. They had
rather big, wonderful models that excelled by their
eccentric and sometimes morbid sense of humor and
caught the viewer's attention when they were on the
move driven by a small electro-motor. All eight
models were advertised as "An easy-to-assemble
moving model" and had such titles as Tower Bridge,
The Sculptor, The Executioner, Tippoo's Tiger,
Playing the Mammoth, Harvesting Mammoth Lemons,
The Guillotine and Ancient Egyptian Scales of
Justice. Great fun for sure for those infected by their
pop-up books and wanting to assemble some paper
artwork themselves. An idea for a workshop during
the September 2000 conference of the Movable Book
Society?

Being sure not to have listed here everything that
could be of interest for the readers of the Movable
stationery, we, nevertheless, hope to have given you
some valuable information of the movable, novelty
and pop-up books that you can look forward to in the
year 2000. For us, even the days in Frankfurt were too
short to see everything we wanted to and to talk to
everybody we had on our list. We are certain there
could also be written a nice and informative article
about the artists' books with movable and/or pop-up
parts seen in the hall with the art books or at the
stands of different galleries dealing in single copies,
but that is not our speciality.

Questions and Answers

Q. Since I also collect Robert Sabuda's "flat"
books, I immensely enjoyed his two-part (MS Vol. 7
Nos. 3 and 4) interview by Barbara Valenta. Aside
from his inventive and innovative pop-ups, I likewise
appreciate his "non-movable" art - from his simple
pencil drawings (e.g. A Tree Place, 1994) to his
intricate (try "labor-intensive"!) illustrations, e.g.
multi-colored handcut linoleum block prints (The
Wishing Well, 1988), mosaics (Saint Valentine, 1992)
and stained glass (Arthur and the Sword, 1995) — not
to mention his thematically-texrured work with
handmade materials, e.g. Egyptian papyrus
(Tutankhamen's Gift, 1994) and Japanese
Sugikawashi paper (The Paper Dragon, 1997). It was
a pleasant surprise for him to admit — nothing to be
ashamed of, Robert! ~ that "right after I got out of
college I illustrated coloring books to make money."
Of course, as a rabid Robert collector, I would like to
see (and own!) some of these "earlier works." Any
information (title, year, publisher, etc.) on the
coloring books he illustrated would be much
appreciated.

By the way, a Sabuda pop-up title was omitted
from his bibliography. Using the pseudonym
(nom-de-pop?) "Thomas Beach," Robert wrote,
illustrated and paper-engineered the 1994 Troll title
Creepy, Crawly Halloween Fright (ISBN:
0816733953). I would assume that the surname is
from his grandmother Joyce E. Beach-Huebner (as
per his dedication on Saint Valentine) and his great
uncle Winston F. Beach (The Paper Dragon). But
who is (was?) "Thomas"?

Adie C. Pena
Makati, Philippines

A. The impression in the article on Mr. Carroll
[November, 1999] is that he taught divinity. In fact,
he was a lecturer in mathematics although he never
received a doctorate. He had strange sleeping habits,
actually was an insomniac and wrote some puzzle
books called "pillow puzzles." He also wrote on
symbolic logic. Dover reprinted several of his books
some years back (well a lot of years back). Being a
mathematician myself I have those reprints. In the
mid 50s and early 60s Scientific American has some

17

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION LIBRARIES

stories about him (Martin Gardner and others). I
thought I recalled that he had a good chair in
mathematics (The Isaac Newton Chair) but I could not
verify that and did not want to spend too much time
trying to.

Strange also was the omission of the wonderful,
and fairy new pop-up of a few years ago.

Is it our imagination (my wife's and mine) that
there are fewer new pop-ups being produced?
Morton Hirschberg
Bel Air, Maryland

A. STAR-GAZING: Ann Montanaro asked

Movable Stationery readers to identify the 24
celebrities at the rock 'n' roll king's August 1969
Vegas concert featured on the 1985 Bonanza Elvis
pop-up book's final spread. Well, the guys at my shop
had fun with this one. (Needless to say, I had to scotch
tape the soundchip's button after a few minutes — one
can only have so much of "Love Me Tender"
incessantly buzzing in the background! *grin*) So
here goes, starting from the upper lefthand corner:
Shirley Bassey and Tony Bennett. Second row (from
the top): Jane Fonda, Tom Jones, Jacqueline Kennedy
and Liberace. Front row (from the top): Elizabeth
Taylor, David Niven (?), Shelley Winters, Frank
Sinatra, Nancy Sinatra (she's beside her dad, right?)
and Raquel Welch. Front row (right hand page, from
the top): Sally Field, Dean Martin, Ann-Margret,
Richard M. Nixon, Bette Midler and Diana Ross.
Second row (from the top): Barbra Streisand, Sammy
Davis Jr., Liza Minnelli and Jerry Lee "Great Balls of
Fire" Lewis. Back row: Roy Orbison of "Pretty
Woman" fame in his trademark shades. And, finally,
the cigar-smoking man with the one-armed bandit:
Bob Newhart (or Alan King?).

Can someone better this list?

Adie C. Pena

Catalogs Received

Aleph-Bet Books. Catalogue 62. 218 Waters Edge,
Valley Cottage, NY 10989. Phone: 914-268-7410.
Fax: 914-268-5942. alephbet@ix.netcom.com.
www.alephbet.com

3 9088 01629 2906

Thomas and Mary Jo Barron. Catalogue 7. 120
Lismore Ave., Glenside, PA 19038. Phone: 215-572-
6293.

Books of the Ages. Gary J. Overmann. Catalogue 22.
Maple Ridge Manor. 4764 Silverwood Dr., Batavia,
Ohio 45103. Phone: 513-732-3456.
Drusilla's Books. Catalog 7. P.O. Box 16,
Lutherville, MD 21094-0016.

Page Books. Catalog 12. 117 Danville Pike,
Hillsboro, OH 45133. Phone: 937-840-0991. Email:
pagebooks@aol . com

Jo Ann Reisler, Ltd. Catalogue 50. 360 Glyndon St.,
NE, Vienna VA. Phone:703-938-2967. Fax: 703-
938-9057. Reisler@clark.net.
www.clarke. net/pub/reisler

Ten Eyck Books. Catalogue 13. P.O. Box 84.
Southboro, MA 01772. Phone: 508-481-3571. Fax:
508-490-9954. Email: teneyck@ma.ultranet.com.

New Publications

The following titles have been identified from
pre-publication publicity, publisher's catalogs, or
advertising. All titles include pop-ups unless
otherwise identified.

Curious George 's Pop-up Storybook House.
Houghton Mifflin. $20.00. 0-395-97908-0.

Patch and the Rabbits. [Tabs] Orchard Books.
March. 6Vs x 61/a. 12 pages. $5.95. 0-531-30265-2.
Also: Patch Finds a Friend. 0-531-30264-4.

A Piece of Cake: A Delectable Pop-up Booh. By
David Pelham. Handprint Books. May. 6x5x3%
inches. 12 spreads. $12.95. 1-929766-01-7.

Ready, Set, Go! Chronicle Books. April. 5 x 5inches.
One pop-up. $6.95. 0-81 18-2601-5.

Truck Jam. By Paul Stickland. Ragged Bears. May.
1 1 x 8% inches. 7 spreads. $16.95. 1-929766-01-7.

New publishers' addresses: Handprint Books and
Ragged Bears, 413 Sixth Ave., Brooklyn, New York
11215-3310.

18